The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

I am working to restore my personal hard drive to it’s original configuration.

www.grateful4.org

Gratitude

Intention

First

Things

The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful: for the positive feedback from folks that haven’t seen me lately on my vibe. Reaffirms that the work is working.

Intention-balance of chill and productivity

First-de clutter desk…again! ha ha

Things-wrap up notes for Arslan

Morning Meditation from The GratiDude

The academic concept from anthropology known as “cultural relativity” could be one of the most important fundamental concepts for folks in our country here in the United States to learn.  There are many reasons why American citizens tend to have less understanding of cultural relativity than many other citizens from other countries primarily due to the fact of our geographic, isolation and the size our country.

Conversely, imagine growing up in western Europe and being surrounded by other countries with completely different languages, histories and cultures that are just a few hundred miles away.  From the very beginning, you would understand that things are different and wrong that are happening other countries from a cultural and daily life standpoint, they’re just different. Including the language.

I’m not gonna get into all the nuances of our history and the economics forced migrations, etc. etc. because it becomes too sensitive and potentially interpreted as being political or having an agenda when really, it’s just history.

The issue of race relations in the United States is very sensitive because we make it sensitive through our own dysfunctionality and lack of honesty in terms of how we talk about our countries history, the force migrations of Africans to this hemisphere by western Europeans, and significant historical facts, like the impact of the mosquito and malaria, and which ethnic groups were more resistant to death by mosquito.

Spoiler alert: African DNA was the most resistant to malaria. It’s almost as if slavery was a pure money grab with necessity being the mother of invention.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!!! European Pirates had found the people that can work in the fields for the settlers and the colonist of the United States both in the north and the south, they will benefit from African slave labor!

But first, we need a sales and marketing strategy!

So, the Portuguese and Spanish Pirates Degenerate Conniving Thieves needed to hatch a plan. 

Over thick brown rum in the belly of a dank and creaky ship they spoke in hushed tones: 

“If we can convince the Christian people of the United States that the Africans are less than human or at least give them enough proof so that they can rationalize the purchase of other human beings. Once they see the economic benefits will be on our way!”

It is only when you go to other parts of the world that you realize the unique nature of race relations here in the United States and that you have very different perspectives on how this history should be addressed talked about or not talked about at all.

My minor at UC California was Global Economics and specifically, the history of Capital, Commerce, Currency, and current regional and hemispheric tariff and trade agreements.

As such, the evolution of the US from an international perspective was explored granularly, and here is just a quick nugget to understand how our economy came to be after Independence from Vox magazine:

The bodies of the enslaved served as America’s largest financial asset, and they were forced to maintain America’s most exported commodity. In 60 years, from 1801 to 1862, the amount of cotton picked daily by an enslaved person increased 400 percent. The profits from cotton propelled the US into a position as one of the leading economies in the world, and made the South its most prosperous region. The ownership of enslaved people increased wealth for Southern planters so much that by the dawn of the Civil War, the Mississippi River Valley had more millionaires per capita than any other region.

There is a reason the windshield is so much bigger than the rearview mirror, it is better to drive looking forward than to look backwards. 

This much is true.

So, looking forward, how do we help unwind some of the social narratives and discourse and messaging that have created such misunderstandings intentions amongst people with different pigmentation in their skin?